Thread:

"I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that"

- Bad Science guy Ben Goldacre adopted this as his catchphrase a while ago as part of his push to get folk to engage with scientific topics on the basis of evidence, no matter how tricky that may become.
(1/n) Seeking out, making sense of and basing positions, policies and actions on evidence is hard. It's hard because it takes critical thinking, it's hard because evidence is often complex and ambiguous and - crucially - evidence frequently confounds our preconceptions.
(2/n)

I know the back story to this, so I'll do a short thread on it.

Nobody comes out of it looking good, except @KarenGee3, who's been giving @CumbriaCC constructive feedback on this scheme until, as my Dad would say, she's blue in the face. Not that it does much good.

(1\n)

https://twitter.com/GreenClout/status/1475785909434036225

(2/n)
Let's go through:

- Where these 'NO CYCLING' markings are;
- Why they've been put in;
- At whose request;
- Current national police guidance that covers cycling on the pavement;
..and, crucially, *why* people might be riding cycles along this stretch of footway/pavement.

These news stories based on DfT statistical releases hope to have us saying "Oh, that's terrible" and, of course, every death on the roads is a preventable tragedy.

But they always have the nerd in me questioning whether the stats are being used with integrity.

A thread.
1/n

https://twitter.com/BritishCycling/status/1466000720486973442

2/n
At the end of June, a bunch of journalists picked up on a stat within a DfT data release that there had been a 40% increase in cycling fatalities in 2020 compared to 2019.

A 40% increase in cyclists dying on the UK's roads?
Perfect fodder for "Oh, that's terrible" stories.

"Why don't cyclists use the cycle lanes?" has become a common refrain.

There are many reasons why. This is just one of them.
📷 @NiallMcFarland "Why don't cyclists use the cycle lanes?" has become a common refrain.

There are many reasons why they might not. This is just one of them.
📷 @eatsruns

A poll for the Daily Mail finds:

🌍 Only 9% think climate change isn't happening

🌍 62% think it's not too late to tackle it

🌍 74% think a 2050 net zero target is either too late (44%) or about right (30%)

🌍 60% think the govt is doing too little

Yes, in the Daily Mail.

https://twitter.com/LeoHickman/status/1454380988763623426

..Just as @LeoHickman says, this poll should be taken with a massive pinch of salt, but they're interesting nonetheless, and the results are quite similar to surveys whose methodology is much less questionable.

For example, the British Social Attitude survey 35 from 2018:

Thread.
1/ Irate driver: "Cyclists should get out of my way. They don't pay road tax." 2/ I'm going to argue that whilst I understand the roots of this anger, it's baseless and in fact, if anyone's freeloading it's motorists.